"The publication deals with the character of the famous Czech traveller, Enrique Stanko Vráz (1860-1932), and presents a selection of his unique photographs to the reader. The text is divided into three chapters, each of them devoted to one aspect of the life of this personality – Vráz’s as yet unexplained origin, Vráz’s world travels and Vraz’s photographic activities. The pictorial insertion contains photographs from the years 1885 to 1904 of the regions of Africa (Gold Coast – today’s Ghana, the Canary Islands), South, North and Central America and Asia (Japan, Kalimantan, New Guinea, Thailand, China, Korea, Siberia)."

“The Ethnologisches Museum in Berlin holds more than 6,500 historical black-and-white photographs from Latin America. These images were produced between 1868 and 1936 and mainly depict ethnological and archaeological motifs, although some portray views of urban or natural landscapes. The contributions to this volume focus on particular series from this extensive archive. In doing so, they illustrate the enormous potential for research inherent within such “repositories of memory”, represent a diverse set of approaches and provide varied interpretations of historical photographs”